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Quiz about Ode to Billie Joe
Quiz about Ode to Billie Joe

Ode to Billie Joe Trivia Quiz


How well do you remember the lyrics to this Bobbie Gentry song from 1967?

A multiple-choice quiz by agony. Estimated time: 3 mins.
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Author
agony
Time
3 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
173,789
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
6977
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 47 (10/10), Picard25 (4/10), dairyman2 (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. "It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy dusty Delta day / I was out _________
_________". Complete the lyric.
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. "At dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat / and mama hollered at the back door '___________________'". What did she holler? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. "'Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the ________, please'". What did Papa want passed? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. "'There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to _______'". What does Papa need to do to those five acres? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. "Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe / put a ____ down my back at the Carroll County picture show." What did those bad boys put down her back? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. "Mama said to me, 'Child, what's happened to your appetite? / I've been cookin' all ____________, and you haven't touched a single bite'". When was Mama cookin'? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. "There was a ________ goin' round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring". What did Papa catch? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. "Brother married Becky ____________, they bought a store in Tupelo." What was the last name of Brother's bride? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. "Me, I spend a lot of time _________
__________ up on Choctaw Ridge". What is our heroine spendin' her time at?
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Do we ever find out for sure what Billie Joe and our heroine threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 19 2024 : Guest 47: 10/10
Mar 09 2024 : Picard25: 4/10
Mar 01 2024 : dairyman2: 10/10
Feb 26 2024 : trolyat: 10/10
Feb 17 2024 : gme24: 10/10
Jan 30 2024 : Southendboy: 10/10
Jan 29 2024 : parrarobbie: 10/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy dusty Delta day / I was out _________ _________". Complete the lyric.

Answer: choppin' cotton

The 3rd of June is a good time of year to be balin' hay, as her brother was doin'. However, if choppin' cotton means cutting it for harvest, then our heroine is badly off in her timing. Cotton harvest is from September through to October, depending on the weather.
2. "At dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat / and mama hollered at the back door '___________________'". What did she holler?

Answer: y'all remember to wipe your feet

"Y'all", as y'all should know, is only correct when used for the second person plural. One would never say, for instance "Tom, y'all take off that eye make-up". It is equivalent to one of the meanings of the French "vous", or the Northeastern "youse" (as in "Can youse guys help me conjugate this French verb?").
3. "'Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the ________, please'". What did Papa want passed?

Answer: biscuits

English and Australian players must feel confused when they hear Americans talk of eating biscuits as part of a meal, or, worse, eating biscuits and gravy. Gravy on a shortbread? No thanks! Of course, to Americans and Canadians, a biscuit is an unsweetened, very short quickbread, usually eaten with meals. I sometimes substitute sour cream for the milk, and add a good whack of chopped dillweed, to make a wonderful biscuit for eating with stew.
4. "'There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to _______'". What does Papa need to do to those five acres?

Answer: plow

Seeing as it's June, and little late for planting anything, I don't quite understand why Papa would be plowing. The logical answer would be 'mow', as this is the time of year to get the hay crop in. However, 'mow' doesn't rhyme with 'anyhow' in the next line. "Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe, ho ho ho" just doesn't seem to fit the 'tone' of the piece, somehow.
5. "Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe / put a ____ down my back at the Carroll County picture show." What did those bad boys put down her back?

Answer: frog

It may have been a southern leopard frog (Ranasphenocephala) which, unlike most other species of toads and frogs, breeds in the fall, during rainy periods.
6. "Mama said to me, 'Child, what's happened to your appetite? / I've been cookin' all ____________, and you haven't touched a single bite'". When was Mama cookin'?

Answer: morning

"Dinnertime" among many farm families, refers to the main meal of the day, which is taken at noon. Personally, though, after a meal of black-eyed peas, biscuits, maybe some chicken and coleslaw, and a couple of pieces of apple pie, I'd rather take a little nap than go back out and chop more cotton in the hot sun.
7. "There was a ________ goin' round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring". What did Papa catch?

Answer: virus

Perhaps what Papa died of was SARS, which killed an estimated 775 people worldwide, in the spring of 2003.
8. "Brother married Becky ____________, they bought a store in Tupelo." What was the last name of Brother's bride?

Answer: Thompson

Becky Thatcher was Tom Sawyer's girlfriend, Becky Sharp is the character from William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" with an eye to the main chance, and Becky Ostawsky lived down the block from me when I was a girl.
9. "Me, I spend a lot of time _________ __________ up on Choctaw Ridge". What is our heroine spendin' her time at?

Answer: pickin' flowers

"And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge". Seems to me, what with Brother gone to Tupelo, Papa dead, and Mama not doin' "much of anything", our heroine could really be spending her time more productively, or that farm will be facing financial ruin. Can't see how it ever really did well, anyway, they don't seem to know much about farming.
10. Do we ever find out for sure what Billie Joe and our heroine threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Answer: No

Speculation was rife, let me tell you, in my junior high when this song came out. The more scandalous the possibility, the better. The song leaves us to the fantasies of our sick minds, however, and never says.

I've been informed, since this quiz came out, (and in no uncertain terms, too!) that I am woefully ignorant of Southern farming methods, and that everything the family does is in fact perfectly reasonable. What do I know, I'm a Canadian...
Source: Author agony

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ralzzz before going online.
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